Questions tagged [zoology]
The biological study of animals. Very broad use so be sure to add additional clarifying tags
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Does the string "...CATCAT..." appear in the DNA of Felis catus?
In Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (GEB), the following claim appears:
...in the species Felis catus, deep probing has revealed that it is indeed possible to read the ...
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Do animals exhibit handedness (paw-ness?) preference?
I have been observing my cat and found that when confronted with an unknown item, she will always use her front left paw to touch it.
This has me wondering if animals exhibit handedness like humans ...
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Why shouldn't dogs eat chocolate?
I was wondering why dogs shouldn't eat chocolate. Can't dogs just excrete the indigestible component in their droppings?
It's common knowledge that dogs shouldn't eat chocolate. What I don't know is ...
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Why are there no wheeled animals?
In physics, "almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes." (See Jolly.) Therefore, on Physics SE, people are veering off into different directions: ...
user3395
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Why do smaller mammals move intermittently?
I was watching a nice little video on youtube but couldn't help but notice how snappy smaller animals such as rats and chipmunks move. By snappy I mean how the animal moves in almost discrete states ...
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Why do men have nipples?
I'd be tempted to call nipples in men vestigial, but that suggests they have no modern function. They do have a function, of course, but only in women. So why do men (and all male mammals) have them?
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Do large animals experience a meaningful delay when moving their most distant appendages?
According to the Physics Factbook, nerve impulses travel at speeds anywhere from 1 meter per second up to around 100 meters per second. Blue whales reach up to around 30 meters long.
For a full-size ...
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Help identifying leaf-like bone
I found two of these objects near a creek in Missouri. They feel like they are made out of bone but they do not look like any bone I have seen before. They also appear as though the could be some sort ...
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Are there any animals that are both poisonous and venomous?
From my layman understanding, animals that inject venom into the bloodstream by biting or poking are venomous. And ones that harm you when you eat them are poisonous.
Are there any animals (or plants)...
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How do cockroaches resist the effects of ionizing radiation?
Cockroaches are very hardy insects. It is known that, among other things, they are able to withstand bursts of ionizing radiation that would kill a human being.
The explanations of this observed ...
user132
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Why do ants live so long?
I was surprised to learn that worker ants in some species live many years. I would have expected a lifespan of a few weeks or months (which is apparently the case for many species).
What factors ...
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How does a baby deer stand the day it's born?
I know most creatures take time to learn some things.
Birds take some time to fly.
Human beings take some time walk or stand.
But in the case of the deer species, it's different. It can stand the ...
user30021
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Insect identification - Is this a bedbug?
This bug was found on a couch in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The couch, and the two beds in the room show no signs of other bugs. Is this a bed bug that I should worry about or something harmless? It ...
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Do homing pigeons fly straight home or follow certain "highways"?
Homing pigeons (Columba livia) have been prized for their navigational abilities for thousands of years. They’ve served as messengers during war, as a means of long-distance communication, and as ...
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Why do parasites sometimes kill their hosts?
It's bothered me for a while now. I understand why a parasitoid would do this, as it only temporarily requires the host, and that not all parasites kill their hosts.
There seems to be no evolutionary ...
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Does this recording sound like the pulses emitted by bats?
Out of curiosity, I recorded sounds in an area with lots of bats, hoping to be able to "hear" the bats communicating by lowering the ultrasound to a level down to the frequency which can be ...
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Do "shooting" animals exist?
The well-known cartoon imagery of porcupines shooting their quills at opponents in a fight is just that: a silly cartoon concept that isn't real. But it makes me wonder, does that mechanism exist ...
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Can any animals photosynthesize?
Plants and animals have the following distinct properties:
Plants live from solar energy by photosynthesis, they use solar energy to make sugar and oxygen out of carbon dioxide, which gives them ...
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What do butterflies eat?
I found a beautiful scarce-swallowtail butterfly in my storeroom, but it was kind of frozen and couldn't fly away. So, I put it on my terrace in the sun. After a little bit, it flew a few meters away ...
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Who are humans' closest relatives, after primates?
This question here addresses the controversy of whether humans are more closely related to bonobos or chimps.
My question is - which group of animals are are closest relatives, beyond primates? Or ...
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Why didn't Escobar's hippos introduced in a single event die out due to inbreeding
Today I read a BBC Report about how Pablo Escobar had once imported 4 hippos (1 male, 3 female) into his estate in Colombia for his private zoo. After his downfall, while other species were shipped ...
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Why is the Red Fox colored bright orange?
They're not poisonous or anything, so it can't be aposematism. As far as I know it doesn't come from diet like the flamingo. They're not apex predators, so they can't get away with it (like tigers), ...
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What strange jelly-like thing is shown in the photo?
What is shown in the pictures below? The photo was taken at the Australia's south coast (Queenscliff). The length of the thing is no longer than 50 cm... It doesn't move and has jelly-like consistency....
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What are the trajectories of flying insects?
Many flying insects tend to have very jagged trajectories. For moves of a fruit fly looks like a random walk.
Is there any research on the properties of trajectories (e.g. their fractal dimension or ...
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How long before robin no longer needs the nest on my porch?
A robin has made a nest on my porch. Unfortunately, the nest is on my weed wacker which I might want to use at some point this summer. Currently, there are two eggs in the nest.
How long will it be ...
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Why do we grow so much hair on our heads compared to our bodies?
I've been wondering about head hair, facial hair in particular. Human males can grow very extensive beards should they choose to not shave - however you do not really see this in our chimpanzee ...
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What is this strange sea creature we found on the beach?
We found this on a beach in North Devon, UK. I've never seen anything like it.
There's a yellowy-ball in the middle with 5 pointed shells attached to it, each of which seems to have a single "leg&...
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What is this spider with blue striped head?
I found this spider on the balcony of a Brisbane, Australia quarantine hotel. About 1.5cm. Anyone know what it is?
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Does the octopus have an anus? What does it look like?
Octopuses are cephalopods, which have separate anal and oral openings. Indeed, descriptions of the cephalopod GI tract clearly depict an anal opening.
However, I am very confused about how this ...
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What is this droplet of liquid that comes out of a mosquito?
I have been looking at pictures of different species of mosquito and several times I came across pictures where the mosquito seems to be secreting some kind of fluid.
In the pictures one can clearly ...
user14636
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Why are there no known animals with an odd number of legs?
In my 6th grade science book it is said that there are no three legged animals, and that no animal with an odd number of limbs exists. I checked Wikipedia and could confirm this:
There are no ...
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Do immortal organisms exist?
Do organisms exist that are able to live indefinitely if they are not killed by external factors?
Under external factors I would consider things like predators and natural disaster but not illness by ...
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Are humans the only animal that requires "clean water"?
I've seen a number of animals - dogs, cats, squirrels, ducks and geese, etc drink from puddles, some of them were muddy, others had green flora growing under water. Same goes for lakes and rivers. A ...
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What kind of creature is this?
I saw this on Facebook today and have tried researching it myself, but I have had no luck.
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Why are flies not scared when landing on a monitor with changing graphics?
I have been wondering why would insects in general, not be scared when important changes happen on your monitor where they have landed...
If you move even just a finger, they are scared to death and ...
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What exactly is this small puffer fish doing and how did it manage to accomplish such a feat?
I recently saw a video on youtube where it shows a puffer fish making intricate designs in the sand:
OZZY MAN VIDEO
The puffer fish made this design on the sand:
What exactly is the puffer ...
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How did the felines get to America?
I don't know if the felines got originated on America or on Africa, but I do know there are species of cat in America and Africa that belong to the same family and genus (Felidae & Panthera).
How ...
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Are there dextral/sinistral higher animals? [duplicate]
For example, almost every dog I've met in my life (more than 20 subjects) uses their right paw touching one while asking for attention. Can it be used as a criterion for calling them dextral? If not, ...
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Why don't rats have a gallbladder, unlike other rodents?
It has long been known that rats do not have a gallbladder, though other species including humans, monkeys, cows, reptiles, dogs and mice, all have a gallbladder.
In this paper from almost 100 years ...
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Do species other than humans have distinct daily feeding patterns?
I have a general interest in complex adaptive systems and I have found that nature and the organisms within it is a perfect natural case of a rich adaptive system with a lot of possibilities for ...
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Why is wombat scat (feces) shaped like cubes?
I've heard that wombat scat is cube shaped, but I don't understand how that can happen. Has anyone studied the phenomenon? What would the evolutionary pressure have been to cause this?
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Do cows produce milk excessively?
Do cows produce more milk than it is required for their calves? It seems like cows are able to provide milk all the time (all year around). Is it so? Or do they, like other mammals, produce milk only ...
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How is the blood volume of a living organism measured without killing it?
How is the blood-volume of an organism measured without killing it?
Note:The blood-volume of an organism is defined as the total volume of blood present inside that organism.
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I found this strange tooth in Galveston, Texas. What does it belong to?
I found this on May 7, 2017, on Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston, Texas. What's not visible are the treelike rings inside the tooth and what looks like a tiny interior porous center. It looks like it ...
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Do large animals often evolve into smaller animals?
There are several examples where the largest animals were killed off preferentially due to a major ecological shift:
The KT extinction event
The Holocene extinction, as well as the major megafauna ...
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What is this crawling next to my house?
I just found this outside my house while walking the dog. I was thinking it's some kind of slug? It's been raining a lot lately and today, so maybe that has something to do with it being on the ...
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Do any animals other than humans undergo menopause?
Do any animals other than humans undergo menopause?
Also, is there any difference between animals in captivity and animals in the wild as regards menopause? For example, even if menopause has been ...
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Do animals other than humans have different blood types?
Humans have the ABO and Rhesus blood typing systems. I have two questions about it:
Why have we evolved these blood types?
Do other animals have different blood types as well?
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What is this animal looking like an Axolotl?
My friend caught a strange looking animal and he's saying it is an axolotl. I keep telling him it's almost impossible, since they are almost extinct in their natural environment and he caught it in St-...
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How do birds deal with their eyes drying out at high speeds?
My eyes tear up when cycling at 15 mph, which is nothing compared to bird airspeeds.
Do birds continuously produce lots of tears and blink a lot, or do the eyes self-moisturize from the inside ...
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